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Worms are very common animals on the shores of the Marine Reserve. There are
many different shapes and sizes. Some worms eat by filtering tiny animals and
plants out of the seawater, others eat dead and decaying material and some feed
on the bacteria and other microscopic life living in the sand. Worms in turn are
eaten by many different animals especially fish and birds.
Lugworms live in a U-shaped burrow, buried in the sand with a hole at one end
of the burrow and a mound of coiled sand at the other end. The coiled sand on
the shore is the only sign of this worm with Anglers like to use as bait.
Ragworms live buried in the sand. They leave no sign of themselves on the surface.
You will need to dig in the sand to try to find Ragworms. They are the favourite
bait of Anglers.
Bootlace worms are very long worms they can reach up to at least 5 metres in
length. You can find them in muddy gravel underneath stones on the shore.
Sandmason Worms build fragile tubes made out of sand grains. The distinctive
tubes stick out of the sand by a few centimetres but if they are carefully dug
out of the sand, you can see they are much longer.
Scale worms are fast moving worms, which live under stones or on seaweed. They
are often brightly coloured and patterned and if you can catch them they shed
the scales as they try to escape.
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